The invention relates to current limiting circuit breakers having contact arms that are arranged for mutual electrodynamic repulsion independent of the operating mechanism upon occurrence of a short circuit current fault. Some means must be provided to close the circuit breaker contacts after the fault has cleared, as well as to visually indicate the condition of the contacts so that an operator could observe whether the contacts are either open or closed without having to disassemble the breaker housing. It is also advantageous, with state-of-the-art circuit breakers, to employ two pairs of circuit interrupting contacts to interrupt the current with the formation of a separate pair of arcs and a separate pair of arc chutes for extinguishing the arcs.